Prosecution says murder defendant was 'done' with wife

Dec. 5, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Richard Forsberg, left, looks on during opening statements of his trial in Orange County Superior Court on charges of murdering his wife of 39 years. Prosecutors say he killed Marcia Ann Forsberg on Feb. 9, 2010, after an argument in their home. EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Richard Forsberg, left, is led into court before opening statements of his trial in Orange County Superior Court on charges of murdering his wife of 39 years. Prosecutors say he killed Marcia Ann Forsberg on Feb. 9, 2010, after an argument in their home. EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh delivers his opening statement during the trial of Richard Forsberg in Orange County Superior Court on charges of murdering his wife of 39 years. Prosecutors say he killed Marcia Ann Forsberg on Feb. 9, 2010, after an argument in their home. EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Defense attorney Calvin Schneider delivers his opening statement during the trial of his defendant, Richard Forsberg, in Orange County Superior Court on charges of murdering his wife of 39 years. Prosecutors say he killed Marcia Ann Forsberg on Feb. 9, 2010, after an argument in their home. EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Richard Forsberg looks on during opening statements of his trial in Orange County Superior Court on charges of murdering his wife of 39 years. Prosecutors say he killed Marcia Ann Forsberg on Feb. 9, 2010, after an argument in their home. EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Richard Forsberg, left, looks on during opening statements of his trial in Orange County Superior Court on charges of murdering his wife of 39 years. Prosecutors say he killed Marcia Ann Forsberg on Feb. 9, 2010, after an argument in their home.EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Those three words in a taped police interview by a man accused of bludgeoning, dismembering and burning the body parts of his wife of 39 years echoed in a 10th-floor Orange County courtroom Wednesday.

That is what Richard Gustav Forsberg, 63, of Rancho Santa Margarita told detectives when they asked if he did anything else, like smother his wife with a pillow, after he told them he hit her in the head with a statuette.

"No, I didn't," Forsberg responded. "Didn't need to."

Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh replayed the phrase several times for jurors in Superior Court Judge William Froeberg's court to make the point that Forsberg intended to kill Marcia Ann Forsberg, 60, in the early hours of Feb. 9, 2010, after the couple argued. Contrary to what the defense has said – that Forsberg didn't realize he was striking his wife's head in their dimly lit bedroom – the defendant knew what he was doing, Baytieh argued in his closing arguments in Forsberg's murder trial.

Showing jurors a picture of a smiling Marcia Forsberg on an overhead screen, Baytieh said it wasn't fun for the defendant to be married to her anymore.

"He was just done with her."

Defense attorney Calvin Schneider said earlier in the trial his client "exploded" in rage the night of the killing and "he struck his wife in a heat of passion." Therefore, Schneider said, his client is guilty of voluntary manslaughter, not murder.

"Sometimes when a person feels they're backed into a corner, they do some horrible things," he said Wednesday. "But that does not mean he was acting with an intent to kill."

Schneider contends much of the evidence against his client comes from his own statements to police. Marital discord stemming from Marcia Forsberg's medical issues, a sexless marriage for the past decade, feelings of isolation and a policy of "don't ask, don't tell" pushed the Forsbergs apart, the defense attorney said.

Prosecutors say Forsberg bludgeoned his wife in the head multiple times with the small statue. He kept her body at home and decapitated and dismembered it over the next few days, they said.

He then rented an RV, bought two freezers to store her body parts and drove to a campground in Ventura County to burn them, prosecutors said. When friends asked about Marcia Forsberg's whereabouts, the defendant told them they were having marital problems and she had left town to be on her own.

While the defense contended that Forsberg "was pushed to inhumane conduct to avoid responsibility," the prosecutor argued the "self-centered" defendant "dehumanized" his wife long before the night he murdered her, by disengaging with her and visiting prostitutes.

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